This chapter examines the role of gender in both the legibility and legitimization logics that structured the colonial political field as well as the interactive identity struggles in which external ...
More

This chapter examines the role of gender in both the legibility and legitimization logics that structured the colonial political field as well as the interactive identity struggles in which external and internal social boundaries were contested and negotiated in Moroccan society. More specifically, it considers the centrality of gender for the colonial state's attempts to maintain ethnic and religious social divisions, the nationalist struggles to redefine Moroccan identity, and Mohamed V's active engagement with the Woman Question in the 1940s. It also discusses external identification processes in which gender played a significant role and the ways in which elite and non-elite urban and rural Moroccan women influenced identity politics during the protectorate period. Finally, it explains how the status of Moroccan women became intertwined with nationalist classification struggles and with Mohamed V's attempt to challenge the legitimizing logics of colonial intervention.Less

Gender and the Politics of Identity

Jonathan Wyrtzen

Published in print: 2015-12-18

This chapter examines the role of gender in both the legibility and legitimization logics that structured the colonial political field as well as the interactive identity struggles in which external and internal social boundaries were contested and negotiated in Moroccan society. More specifically, it considers the centrality of gender for the colonial state's attempts to maintain ethnic and religious social divisions, the nationalist struggles to redefine Moroccan identity, and Mohamed V's active engagement with the Woman Question in the 1940s. It also discusses external identification processes in which gender played a significant role and the ways in which elite and non-elite urban and rural Moroccan women influenced identity politics during the protectorate period. Finally, it explains how the status of Moroccan women became intertwined with nationalist classification struggles and with Mohamed V's attempt to challenge the legitimizing logics of colonial intervention.

This book has examined how Moroccan identity has been politicized by European colonial intervention. Drawing on the concept of colonial political field, it has shown that the making of modern Morocco ...
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This book has examined how Moroccan identity has been politicized by European colonial intervention. Drawing on the concept of colonial political field, it has shown that the making of modern Morocco was made possible by the interactions between the colonial powers and local parties. These interactions occurred over time among elites such as colonial administrators, the Moroccan king, and urban Arab anti-colonial nationalists, as well as marginalized groups including rural Berber-speaking groups, the Jews, and Moroccan women. The result was the politicization of Moroccan territory, Moroccan Muslim and Jewish religious identities, Moroccan Arab and Berber ethnic identities, and the Alawid dynasty. This book concludes with a discussion of the broader historiographical and theoretical implications of its findings and how the Moroccan case can explain identity politics in other cases of colonial intervention. It also considers how colonial legacies continue to influence struggles over the territorial, religious, ethnic, and gendered components of Moroccan identity in the post-protectorate political field.Less

Conclusion

Jonathan Wyrtzen

Published in print: 2015-12-18

This book has examined how Moroccan identity has been politicized by European colonial intervention. Drawing on the concept of colonial political field, it has shown that the making of modern Morocco was made possible by the interactions between the colonial powers and local parties. These interactions occurred over time among elites such as colonial administrators, the Moroccan king, and urban Arab anti-colonial nationalists, as well as marginalized groups including rural Berber-speaking groups, the Jews, and Moroccan women. The result was the politicization of Moroccan territory, Moroccan Muslim and Jewish religious identities, Moroccan Arab and Berber ethnic identities, and the Alawid dynasty. This book concludes with a discussion of the broader historiographical and theoretical implications of its findings and how the Moroccan case can explain identity politics in other cases of colonial intervention. It also considers how colonial legacies continue to influence struggles over the territorial, religious, ethnic, and gendered components of Moroccan identity in the post-protectorate political field.